Man hit with steep fine after ignoring harvesting regulations in fishing bay: 'May lead to local depletion'

Seafood is a significant source of nutrition for people around the world. It is also an important driver of local economies. So the health and size of fish and other marine life populations are extremely important.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the number of overfished stocks has tripled in the last century. Overfishing is a threat to the health of our oceans, the safety of our food supply, and our global economy. That is why governments around the world have established certain rules and regulations to prevent the practice.

But rules and regulations are only effective if they are enforced.

An Ontario, Canada, man was recently fined $5,500 after a court found him guilty of catching and retaining oysters over the allotted daily limit of 12. Raul Dumelod was found with over 300 oysters in his possession and lacking a valid license to be catching shellfish in the first place.

Unlicensed overfishing of oysters can be extremely dangerous. In many areas in the Pacific Northwest, people are prohibited from catching oysters because of water contamination. Illness or even death could result from eating contaminated oysters. Last year, 80 people were sickened in Los Angeles from a norovirus linked to raw oysters.

So, it is extremely important for authorities to be able to trace where an oyster was caught. Unlicensed fishing could result in even more sections of the ocean being closed to fishing.

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Beyond that, oysters are extremely important to the health of all marine life in the oceans they call home because they naturally filter out water contaminants. To that point, Blue Marine Foundation recently relocated over 4,000 oysters to Chichester, England. The hope is that the oysters will help restore the health of the ocean in the area.

A report by Fisheries and Oceans Canada on the original incident stresses the importance of following the rules: "Overharvesting of Pacific oysters may lead to local depletion of the resource, negatively impacting the sustainability of Pacific oysters on the beach, and negatively impacting the future harvest opportunities at the site."

The report also stated that the man was quite simply ignoring clear signage that was put in place to protect the general public: "The area where Mr. Dumelod was harvesting was clearly marked as a commercial oyster lease with no harvesting permitted."

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